With a light pre-holiday agenda, the Alachua County Commission zipped through their Tuesday evening agenda in about 45 minutes.

Then, public comment came and things got interesting. Two members of the Gainesville Tea Party spoke. One, Rod Gonzalez, publicly asked that Commissioner Paula DeLaney step down (on its website, the Tea Party has encouraged its members to make such requests) for her comments at last Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony.

At that ceremony, when Tea Party member Susan Baird was sworn in as the first Republican elected to the board in 22 years, DeLaney criticized those who would “starve government into greatness” and said the more affluent should pay more in taxes to support government. For them, she said, a high tax bill would be less of a tax burden than a low tax bill is on a person of more modest means.

DeLaney also showed the property tax bill of former Gainesville City Commissioner and current conservative talk radio host Ed Braddy.

Gonzalez believed DeLaney’s comments insulted voters who believe in “American exceptionalism and freedom of the individual” and opposed the idea of citizens relying on government programs as a characteristic of “a socialistic society.”

DeLaney did not respond to Gonzalez’s comments. Oft-outspoken Commissioner Mike Byerly, however, took time to praise and criticize Gonzalez and the Tea Party. Byerly praised their involvement in local government. Over the last several months, that’s included showing up in strong numbers at Charter Review Commission meetings and at County Commission meetings to oppose a possible fire assessment (which was voted down) and at budget hearings argue against funding for nonprofit agencies and for additional funding for the Sheriff’s Office.

“I appreciate and respect the fact that some of the people who have been coming to our meetings over the last six months have been doing what they’re doing,” Byerly said. “I wish more people on my side of the fence were doing it and I’m going to try to get them to do that because I think a lot of the feedback that we’ve been getting has been kind of on one side and we’re taking a pounding because you guys are doing what you’re supposed to be doing. You’re exercising advanced citizenship and some of the people I think may feel differently than you need to get down here and express their views. ”

Byerly, however, took umbrage with the argument that DeLaney should step down from office.

“The essence of democracy, of course, is that an elected official should be able to say and express any view that they wish without it seeming that they have to step down or resign from office,” Byerly said.

He added that when an elected official publicly expresses an opinion that a citizen doesn’t like, “if that’s the limit of their offense, why on earth should they be asked to step down from office?”

“I don’t get that and it doesn’t seem very grown up to me when we discuss things like that during government functions,” Byerly added.

Braddy also made an appearance Tuesday. He said he wanted to bring “closure” to the incident in which DeLaney displayed his tax bill on the overhead projector- and then revisited it at length. He spoke for more than nine minutes. Members of the public are allotted three minutes but often allowed time to run over. Chairman Lee Pinkoson asked Braddy to wrap up after four minutes but then allowed Braddy to continue. Braddy noted the meeting room was empty and he’d been “singled out” by DeLaney.

Braddy pointed out that the tax bill on his home is actually higher than that on DeLaney’s home. He also talked about himself. Among the topics he touched on his radio show on 99.5 FM, articles he’d written for national publications on taxes and metropolitan planning and his work with the Tampa Tea Party to defeat a sales tax referendum to fund light rail.

Morgan Watkins, a University of Florida grad, joined the Sun in August 2012 as its county government reporter. She keeps you updated on what’s happening inside county meetings and outside in local neighborhoods. If you think something might make a good story, let her know at morgan.watkins@gvillesun.com.